Malaria is a killer disease in tropical countries. It is caused by Plasmodium. The four species of Plasmodium that infect human beings are P. vivax, P. malariae, P. ovale and P. falciparium. Some of the species that infect animals are P. yoelii in mice and P. cynomolgi in monkeys. These species cause severe complications in the patient that cause the patient to lapse into a coma and ultimately leads to death. In many parts of the world, there are several strains of Plasmodium that are resistant to drugs such as chloroquinone, mefloquine, halofantrine, quinine, etc. More than 270 million people suffer from the disease and more than 1.2 to 1.7 million die every year. Mortality among children under the age of 5 is common because such children are sensitive on account of their lack of immunity to the disease.
The need of the hour therefore is to develop novel anti-malarial drugs that can counter drug-resistant malarial infections.